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New York Giants’ Justin Tuck Says Jason Pierre-Paul Will “Change the League”

October 22nd, 2012 at 3:00 PM By Paul Tierney

The New York Giants' defensive line displayed an explosive pass rush for the second consecutive week, as Big Blue came up with three sacks at home against the Washington Redskins in Week 7. Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora, and Jason Pierre-Paul each brought down the elusive Robert Griffin III on separate occasions, which enabled the Giants to keep pace with the Washington Redskins' explosive offense throughout the contest. After the game was over, Tuck expressed his approval for how teammate, JPP, has been playing of late.

JPP had four tackles and caused a sack/fumble on RG3 as the Redskins were threatening to score with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter. Eli Manning gave the ball right back with an interception on the next play, but JPP and the Giants defense held the 'Skins to a field goal on the ensuing drive. Needless to say, Pierre-Paul's presence had a huge impact on Sunday's matchup, and teammate Justin Tuck thinks the Giants third-year superstar has the ability to a special player.

"I think he had a lot of fun today," Tuck said. "I think he enjoyed being out there. I honestly think the whole 'Not having fun' [thing] was blown out of proportion. But it was good to see him coming out and making plays. That guy, I think he's going to change the league. If he continues to do what he's doing, he's going to be good for a long time."

Although the statistics say Pierre-Paul was relatively quiet throughout the first five games of 2012, the reality was the he was seeing constant double teams at the line of scrimmage. As the Giants began rotating Mathias Kiwanuka and Adrian Tracy into the defensive line rotation, the pass rush started getting going and the entire defense looked revitalized. To many it looked as if JPP was struggling through the first few games of this season, but he remained a stalwart defender against the run and made plays when the ball came his way. The reality was that he was seeing an increased amount of attention from opposing offensive lines, and team's generally tried to avoid him if possible.

However, with Kiwanuka seeing more time on the defensive line, there is no way JPP can be double-teamed on every play anymore. The Giants are rotating four explosive pass rushers and they are creating havoc for the opposition. The Redskins attempted to use option plays to slow down the Giants pass rush and it worked to an extent. There were times when nobody on the defense knew who had the ball. However, in the fourth quarter, RG3 inevitably made a bad read and found himself one-on-one against an unblocked JPP coming off the line. JPP had an opportunity to make a play and he came through.

Jason Pierre-Paul may not be putting up the gaudy statistics he displayed in 2011, but he is as dangerous as ever this season. With Mathias Kiwanuka and Adrian Tracy seeing more time on the defensive line, JPP has seen more opportunities and he has made the most of them.

I’ve changed my tune on Herz. He’s looked very good on specials and has shown some speed I didn’t think he had. I have no doubt he’ll put the time and work in on the practice field and the film room. Really it’s just a matter of does he have the instincts and strength to play in the middle.

That being said I’m still calling him the “Great white hope”. Because he’s white, and provides hope to a fan base that has been starving for a MLB since AP got fat.

I’d still rather we stick with Blackburn. Blackburn has the intelligence and experience to lead the defense. Give Herzlich more time under Coughlin, but also start giving him more snaps over the course of the season to let him familiarize himself with game-time scenarios.

Along with Jpp I thought Tuck also has been quietly looked better the last 2 1/2 games, there were a few times he was a half of step slow making a big play but still more and more disruptive. Osi really didn’t see the field in the 1st half outside of one series that I noticed as Washington was run heavy, but he showed up in the second half when Bob started dropping back.

The D line as a whole played much better the last 2 weeks, with Canty back it should only get better. I’m most surprised that Kuhn is starting to produce this early, 2 big tackles yesterday and another ball knocked down at the line.

Yeah Tuck has played better. He’s made a big play or 2 per game over the past month. But he’s still a long way from the 2008-2010 all pro version of himself. That Justin Tuck was a consistent force, dominant throughout the entire game. I’m starting to think this may be his new level, with a few big games still left in him.

It’s not that surprising though. This is the NFL. Tough to remain that dominant throughout a career.

He’s reached that rare level of great athlete where you always expect more. My father used to talk about Mickey Mantle this way. That no matter how well he did you’d think, “man he can do even better!” Even after he won the triple crown or MVP, “hey he still has more upside”.

Some fans may think of this as unfair or spoiled. I think it’s the highest compliment you can give an athlete. And it’s the way I view Eli and have for a while now. So when he has a game like he did yesterday, or makes a poor decision it surprises me. He’s gotten to the point where if he throws an incomplete pass I’m caught off guard.

Yesterday by all means was a poor game by Eli standards. And it’s probably not fair for fans to point out his poor play in a game we ended up winning on a huge play he made at the end. But that’s 100 percent Eli’s fault. He’s set the bar that high.

And if we don’t win the SB this season or at least make one heck of a run, I’m gonna be disappointed and upset. Those are the standards he’s set. It’s certainly unfair to have such high expectations, but it is a compliment, even if some don’t see it that way.

I made this point several weeks ago. I think Eli has proved to be great enough that we should expect him to be great every game and when he isn’t be critical of him for it. And the same can be said for our team. While I’m pleased we won I don’t feel great about our overall performance or Eli’s play. That doesn’t change my expectations of Eli or this team.

Nosh – I think what’s obnoxious about you calling Chase “the Great White Hope” is that it infers that I would prefer to have Chase at LB over an equally or slightly better LB that is “non-white”. At least this is how I’m interpreting your silly description of Chase. The whole thing is insulting, especially to Blackburn who has earned his playing time.

Chase doesn’t have a nickname. Herzlich is The Great White Hope. formerly the great white hype.

I suppose we could give him a nickname though, “The Substitute” maybe? Based on his substitute teaching credentials and the fact that he’s sort of just keeping the MLB spot warm until the Giants can find someone better.

I dunno, seems sort of unoriginal. Certainly not on par with the great white hope or Swag Hosley.

Hahaha. Saw AP on first take this morning. Felt kind of bad for him that his life now revolves around talking football with 2 idiots. Yes I watched first take. I’m off work today, and still can’t drive because of my dislocated knee. Don’t judge me!

Bennett & Robinson tear each others’ ACLs in an awkward locker room wrestling accident that the rest of the team refuses to ever mention for the rest of their lives. In the off season, the Giants resign Jake Ballard and spend a 2nd round draft pick on a TE. They become fast friends and head to California before training camp, where each of them have an arm bitten off in the strangest shark attack ever.

Beckum then beats out David Diehl and Mark Bavaro for the backup TE spot behind Bear Pascoe.

Next week’s game is ours to lose. We’ve only improved since that rusty first week while the Cowboys have done nothing but regressed ever since that upset.

Granted, they have a good defense, but with Eli and a running game, we can break that defense with time. Our defense needs to come through huge here once again. That entire Cowboys offense is fairly weak outside of the quarterback. Felix Jones cannot sustain a running game while Dez and Miles have been lackluster for the most part.

In the Panthers game, Romo only managed to complete ONE pass that went for more than 20 yards down the field. In fact, their entire passing game relied on checkdowns. Not much of a surprise considering his receivers haven’t been playing up to their billing. In fact, he’ll more than likely rely on this strategy once again in order to try and negate our pass rush, which is much better compared to what it was the first week. Our linebackers will need to cover the entire flat (perhaps with the occasional safety help) to ensure that Romo holds on to the ball long enough for our defensive line to generate some pressure and possible turnovers. I see our defense having a huge game here as long as our linebackers and our safeties play their assignments well and make the necessary adjustments to ensure that no Cowboy is in position to make a play anywhere in the flat. Take away the short options and Romo is left in a very vulnerable position.

I’m a little worried about watching the game tonight. There were a lot of excellent performances Sunday, and I’m concerned that Gruden might pull me right into the TV set with a mighty suck. He’s going to be awful.

Kujo will be relieved.. I think we should win, they are not a very good team and We are undefeated in the Meadow lands South or the House that Eli built at Jerruhs expense, whatever you want to call it. I had one eye on the Dallas Carolina Game yesterday (it was on TV next to Giant game) and they really struggled with a Pathetic Carolina team. Losing Demarco Murray really hurts them, making them one dimensional and we all know how Chokmo fares under pressure. Giants should win this one and put some space between them and the rest of the pack… This would be the 8th consecutive year the Tom Coughlin led giants Start out 6-2 or better. But we all know the Giants never do anything to make things easy..

Just caught up on all the threads comments since the game and most has been said already so I wont repeat, other than to say that RG3 is indeed the real deal and will be a Giants pain in the **** for the next ten years. We are very fortunate that the Daniel traded away the farm to get him and has screwed up their cap worse than Kujo screws up orders at the McDonalds drive through he works on weekends. This will make it harder for them to put a complete team around him and will hold them back a bit. They, not the EGirls or the cow plops will be the Giants biggest competition in the NFC East from 2013 on.